Flagstaff and the Start of Our Presentation

Our pile of mulch.

Today we met at Flagstaff Park at 9am as per usual, ready to continue with the mulch removal job we had started earlier in the week. We waited for a shipment of tools for completing our task for about 20 minutes (time used to complain about the park’s crabgrass, which Team Greensense decided was far inferior to Kentucky Bluegrass), at which point we realized that the tools were not actually set to arrive until 11:00. We used the hour-and-a-half before the tools’ arrival time to begin planning our presentation/proposal (scheduled for next Thursday). The team discussed ideas for an energy saving contest between the Area 4 and Frisoli Youth Centers, and for a series of posters that would be put up in the youth centers to remind kids to turn off lights and save energy in general. At 11:00 we reconvened at Flagstaff and worked for the duration of the day on removing harmful mulch and roots from the trees in the park.

 

Green Roofs

Today we started by reviewing our social marketing plans for getting people to turn of the lights. We also started to devise and advertising scheme to help remind people to turn of the lights. We came up with a few ideas such as posters, incentives, and competitions between youth centers. After this we headed over to University Park to see the green roof on the top of one of the buildings. A green roof is when you plant plants on the top of a roof so that rainfall is soaked up and either used by the plant and filtered helping reduce waste water runoff.

 

Waste water and the green roof

Today, we learned about waste water and how that affects our environment. Catherine Woodbury showed 2 videos to help us have a better understanding.  The video showed how a lot of people use stencil drains to dump their things such as wrappers, and if people don’t pick up after their dogs, anything besides water that gets in the drain. This all causes damage to the environment. The waste that gets in the drains will go directly to oceans or rivers, and this causes harm to the animals in the invironment, and also to the people who get their water from these rivers. The second video showed us how green roofs can help store a lot of the storm water and help prevent chemicals like pesticides to get into the drains that will eventually go to rivers. Seeing how cool green roofs were, I was excited when we went to go see a green roof on Sidney Street. It was really cool. Our tour guide talked about the technical stuff and how it worked, and a lot of us didn’t understand what he was talking about, but we got the basics. We ended our day there, and managed to get out earlier than usual.

 

Central Square Bike Audit

Bike Lane and Parking Audit

Today the Team ventured into the depths of Central Square to observe a number of aspects of the Square’s bicycle usage and accommodations. Three separate groups went out, all making different observations and collecting different data. The first group collected data on the number of bike racks being used, the number of unoccupied bike racks, and the number of bikes locked to objects other than bike racks (like street poles, subway fences, etc.). This group also took pictures of their findings. The second group observed bike traffic in the Square, looking at the number of bikers on the road (in bike lanes) and on the sidewalk. This group also made note of the number of times bike lanes were blocked, and by who. The final group talked to several local business owners about their views on the availability of bike racks, the number of customers that come on bikes, and other bike-related information.